Pirates back in GTE title chase

Defending GTE champion Sandusky saw its league lead slip to 1/2-game here on Election Day, dropping a 47-40 decision to surging Harbor Beach.

Harbor Beach, now 14-3 overall, 8-1 GTE, has three league games remaining: Thursday against Mayville, next Tuesday against Ubly, and next Thursday at Brown City. Sandusky, now 15-2, 9-1, has games with Deckerville and Ubly remaining on its GTE slate.

"Our schedule is tough the rest of the way, no doubt," said Harbor Beach coach Marilee Schock. "None of our remaining three games are going to be easy.

"We talked about it in the locker room after the game. We know it's not over. This is a great win, but we still need those next three games."

Harbor Beach jumped out to a huge lead, and then had to hang on in the waning moments. The Pirates led by 15 at the half - and by as many as 17 early in the third quarter - though saw that evaporate to six midway through the final period. Though 0-of-5 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, the Pirates did just enough - especially on the defensive end - to escape with the victory.

"We dug a pretty big hole in the first half that we could never get out of," said Sandusky coach Al DeMott.

"We made a couple of runs. I think we got it down to six - and they missed a couple of free throws - but we quit scoring, too."

"Sandusky is a great team, and I think starting the three post players was going to be hard to defend," Schock said. "I think it got (Sandusky) a little out of sync."

Schock also pointed to her team's starting guard play as a plus, as well.

"Both Kelsey (Wehner) and Ashley (Lemanski) were very aggressive, especially on the boards," she said. "They both average right around six rebounds per game. So when you have guards doing that, it's a huge plus."

Wehner tossed in 10 points, including a pair of three-pointers, for the Pirates while Lemanski added seven.

"All three of their inside girls played well, and their guards did, too," DeMott said. "They hit some shots from the outside that were big."

Harbor Beach saw its commanding 17-point lead early in the third quarter dwindle to 10 heading to the final eight minutes. Maier got on the board with her first points with 38 seconds left in the period. She also helped put all three of Harbor Beach's inside girls in foul trouble. Both Hessling and Messing had four fouls in the third quarter, and had to rotate with reserve Megan LaPine.

A basket from Maier, followed by a three-pointer from Kayla Wadsworth, sliced Sandusky's deficit to 43-37 early in the fourth quarter. But the Harbor Beach defense forced a couple of much-needed turnovers in the closing minutes to preserve the win. In fact, the Redskins managed just three points over the game's final 4:50.

"Sandusky reads defenses so well," Schock said. "They throw that skip pass and get open shots. When you come and help on the inside, they seem to always find an open person on the perimeter and hit a shot.

"We needed to guard on the outside and stay home - and we did a good job of doing that."

For the first time all year, the Redskins failed to put a player in double figures. Maier led the team with nine points, all of those coming in a four-minute spurt of the third and fourth quarters. Maria Gerstenberger added eight points while Nikki May notched six.

Harbor Beach was red-hot in the opening quarter, rolling to an 18-6 lead. It stayed that way until the final few moments of the second quarter when Wehner buried a late three-pointer, giving her team a 31-16 edge at the half.

"It seemed like they were a little more hungry than us early on," DeMott said. "But we came back. We made a good run, and I'm proud of that.

"We knew at the beginning of the year that there are some really good teams in this conference. It's hard to go undefeated in this league."